1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to administering end user support in a computing environment, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for providing communications between an end user, a product administrator and/or customer support service personnel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of computer systems as a means of gathering and processing information has become commonplace in modern business (and other types of) organizations. Both the hardware underlying such computer systems, and the software which operates on this hardware, have necessarily become sophisticated and complex, given both the constant innovation in this technological field, as well as the ever-increasing demands of the end user. With sophistication and complexity often comes an enhanced difficulty (at least perceived) from the end user's viewpoint in learning how to use the computer system, as well as a greater chance for error (bugs) when designing the underlying software code.
In the past, it was often difficult for the vendor of software (and hardware) to assist the end user when the end user encountered a "problem" when running the software. Because of the inherent complexity of a sophisticated piece of software, much time and effort had to be taken by the vendor and/or the local administrator of the computer system to determine what had happened, and to further determine whether the "problem" occurred due to the end user's misunderstanding of how the software operated, or whether the "problem" was truly an error in coding (a bug) which needed to be fixed by the vendor. In either case, determining the cause of the "problem" could be a grueling task.
For example, if an end user of a piece of software running on the computer system encountered a situation which required assistance from the local system administrator or vendor, the end user would typically telephone or send an electronic mail message to the system administrator in an attempt to describe what led to the problem. Often, the system administrator would not immediately understand the problem due to the inherent complex nature of modern software applications, and would need to spend additional time with the end user determine the exact nature of the problem.
Even if the system administrator did understand what led to the problem, the system administrator might not understand how to resolve the problem, and would often need to contact the software vendor for further assistance. This would cause additional delay in the resolution of the problem. Finally, either the system administrator acting alone, or the system administrator working with a representative of the vendor would (hopefully) solve the problem, but not without much time and effort (and hence cost) in manually trying to recreate the problem to isolate the problem (or fix the bug).
The above-described shortcomings, and other shortcomings of prior art techniques for providing support for an end user in a computer system are effectively overcome by the present invention, as described in further detail below.